Workshop #1: Making Ideas Dance

Monday
9th July 2012
Workshop #1: Making Ideas Dance

Introduction to dance improvisation and Laban principles of movement and dance for the primary classroom.

Information

My name: Chanell McAsey.

Group members: Hannah Smith, Cameron Brown.

Lecturer's name: Jackie Dreessens.

 Over View

This workshop allowed students to undergo the principles of movement in order to interpret dance techniques. We applied the basic skills of dance, focusing on the skills of floor patterns, use of space in the area, levels, directions and creating interesting movements. It allowed me to understand in more depth the dance vocabulary and put it all into practice.  

We took part in an activity known as ‘Mirror, Mould, Extend’ where we initially warmed up our bodies and were demonstration the skills of unision through symmetrical, contrasing and asymmetrical shapes. 
We warmed up in the following ways:

1. Walking around in the space

2. Using different levels

3. Mirroring, Moulding and Extending


4. Stretching













We continued the activity by ‘following the leader’ where we would copy the leading persons movements. 

We then formed a circle, one student would enter that circle, perform a movement and yell out ‘contrast’ or ‘mirror’ and the surrounding students were to perform that movement.

The main body of todays lesson involved focusing on the skills of mirror, mould and extend. Prior to creating a dance piece we had to correctly master these skills. As a whole class we gained the mastering of the skills through practicing a whole group extend- where each person extended off anothers movement, through their arms, legs or other body parts.

The ending of the workshop involved creating a performance based on the skills learnt in the lesson on Mirroring, Moulding and Extending. We used these learnt skills combined with dance elements such as levels, unisions, contrasts symmetrical and asymmetrical movements 

Main art learning processes

 Laban Principles

The four main principles of the Laban movement analysis are:

1. The BODY
What you use and expression

a. Parts--‐head, neck, shoulders, arm, wrists, elbows, hands, fingers, hips, pelvis, trunk, spine, stomach, sternum,

etc

b. Relationships --‐over, under, around, through, above, below, beside, between, near, far, in, out, on, off, together, apart, alone, connected, in, front, back

c. Shapes -- curved, straught, twisted, angular, symmetrical, asymmetrical

d. Balance --- off balanace, on balanace

2. EFFORT (dynamics)

How you use the body

a. Space

– place, size, level, direction, pathway, focus,

b. Weight

– Strong, light

c. Time

– Sudden, Sustained

d. Speed

--‐ Fast, medium, Slow

e. Rhythm

–Pulse, Pattern, Breath,

f. Flow

–Bound, Free

g. Energy

--‐ Sharp, Smooth

3. SHAPE

What the audience sees, the images you make

a. Shape Forms

b. Shape Change

c. Shape Qualities


SPACE
Your environment and how you respond

a. Kinasphere

b. Intention and

direction

This lesson involved the incorperation of the movement creation process also known as I.S.A.R.E where we used the following techniques:

Improvisation: This involved moving without planning it prior to the movement.

Selection: Where we chose vairous movements which resulted from the initial improvisational time which relfected our intention.

Arrangement: Where we arranged our movments and phrases into sections that provided a unified compostion which reflected the theme we were representing.

Refinement: Where we chose to edit our movement vocabulary and refine the phrases within the sections and commit the finished dance to our memory.

Evaluation: Where we critically reflected on the process of composing, rehearsing and performing the dance work which expressed our original intention.
 

Further development of dance teaching ideas across the curriculum and other areas of VELS

Progression point 1.5 At 1.25, the work of a student progressing towards the standard at Level 2 demonstrates, for example: Creating and making ·         exploration of effective ways to use arts elements such as colour, sound or shape to communicate imagined ideas ·         memorisation of expressive movements and/or actions created in response to stimulus material ·         exploration of ways that shapes, colours, images and/or sounds can be repeated to communicate an idea or observation ·         making of visual, sound and/or voice effects to represent ideas in response to stimulus material ·         identification of features of performing and visual arts works they and others have made.

References

Laban Movement Analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2012. Laban Movement Analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laban_Movement_Analysis. [Accessed 02 October 2012]

Victorian Essential Learning Standards - VELS. 2012. Victorian Essential Learning Standards - VELS. [ONLINE] Available at:http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/. [Accessed 02 October 2012].